We had two nights with freezing temperatures last weekend, Friday and Saturday nights. So we pulled out row covers again and especially paid attention to covering our 5 rows of potatoes. It was a lot of work and Shain says everything pulled through fine. Now we appear to be back to the heat.

This week's harvest was the last of the pac choi and Chinese cabbage from greenhouse 6, our "Hot House", aka "The Big Tomato Greenhouse." These spring crops were starting to bolt, so out it all goes while still edible. And in goes more tomato plants, basil, etc.

Garlic scapes may be a surprise food item to those who are new to EverGreen Farm. Garlic scapes are the stalk that grows from our garlic crop. In the beginning, this center shoot is tender and grows in fun curly-Q's. Over time, if left on the plant, it would become fibrous and woody, straighten up tall, and the pod on the end would bloom into a flower pom-pom. Garlic scapes are only available a few weeks of the entire year. We pick them when ready and they don't grow back. This explains why many have never seen them. The scapes have a mild garlic flavor and can be used in many ways. (My own personal choice is to discard the blossom end, though it is edible and used commonly in Asian cooking.) One of our very favorites is to make garlic scape pesto with pistachios. If you are making egg roll stuffing, add finely chopped scapes. They can also be roasted in larger pieces (similar to how you would prepare asparagus). My friend simply chops hers up fine and freezes them for use all year. They are the secret ingredient in her amazing hummus. Here's the link to a collection of garlic scape recipes we've collected over the years.

This is a photo of the jungle we are growing in greenhouse 7. Actually, it's beets, carrots, Japanese turnips, etc. But right now, it's a jungle. This is my "before" picture. It's my hope that in a week I'll be taking a beautiful "after" photo where these rows are free of the strangling weeds and ready to grow, grow, grow. Open invitation to all our CSA members to come help out on the farm this Friday or Saturday morning. Let me know. Let's get another big project done so we can have the best foods this season!

June 22, 2016

This was our last harvest from the plentiful, high quality, grown in a greenhouse, lettuce greens. Next week we'll need to start harvesting from our outside rows, which are exposed to weather and bugs, thus taking more time to harvest and wash up so beautifully. Hope you've enjoyed the plenty while it lasted. In all our years running the CSA, we've never given out 2 bags of salad mix each week, especially not for so many weeks in a row. I did a quick survey of our workshares and the majority were very agreeable to having another week of extra salad. Some of you are sharing the bounty with friends and neighbors but there are probably a handful of folks who are overwhelmed with the greens. If you fall into the last category, remember much of what you are receiving can be used in recipes that can be frozen. Salad doesn't freeze, but it can be blended in smoothies or fruit juices.

This is how we used up our bounty last week. (Our regular share + any leftovers + some extra cabbage.) 8 batches of egg roll stuffing mix into the freezer!

My "recipe": coarsely chop all the greens (including the radish and turnip tops), shred the radishes and turnips, also added shredded carrots (store bought). Mixed together. Wilted the mixture in a medium/hot pan with enough olive oil to coat and prevent sticking. (I wilted the mix in several batches.) We also added some tempeh (shhh, don't tell our teenager). Batches were portioned off into freezer bags. We decided to leave our freezer batches unseasoned so we can add more fresh ingredients later as it us used. Shain added freshly shredded ginger, garlic powder, and tumeric to this meal and it tasted wonderful. Teenager ate 5! Our dip is Mae Ploy sauce mixed with organic chunky peanut butter.

What are you making with your share? I'd love to post your photos or recipes. Here's the foodie talk I'm hearing from the workshares: the cabbage leaves make great wraps (replacement for bread in sandwiches); pickled or fermented radishes and turnips are being made (we have a recipe here); several people said they'd like to try making kimchi; and wilted greens with eggs is another way to use up all the veggies.

I've enjoyed following a fellow CSA farmer from Washington state (who somehow has time to also be a food blogger). She posts great photos and recipes and can be found on Instagram @andreabemis or her website is dishingupthedirt.com.

We have had a lot of craziness here on the farm lately. Electrical work done on our street which put us without power and water for a morning. Our north well pump fried out several days ago and was finally replaced today. We've had to run hoses from the house all this week to wash and process produce. It's been a real challenge keeping plants alive without our normal water supply. Stressful too. Now we are watching the forecast for this coming Friday night and making plans for dragging out row covers again if it drops to freezing. It's been a hard week for extra things to go wrong because we had plans to go enjoy some special family events. But we make it. We keep working at it every day. One day at a time. And if that seems to overwhelming, one row at a time.

June 15, 2016

As promised, food is growing, more is ready to harvest, and your shares are getting bigger. Enjoy!

Projects around the farm continue to be focused around planting. We've taken out multiple rows of our very earliest plants and replanted them with warm weather crops. Greenhouse 6 is also transitioning one row at time from spring to summer. Photo above shows how we have inter-planted the pepper plants in the openings left as we harvest the pac choi.

This is greenhouse 4, each time we want to plant another row, we string off a section and weed out the long row. Then we plant. In this photo, we have 4 rows planted. But as of today, two more rows have been weeded and planted. Only the section on the far right (south) remains. And so the process goes for each and every greenhouse, all 7 of them. "One row at a time." My motto.

the large Chinese cabbage leaves make very nice wraps (filled with anything really, but think along the lines of spring rolls, or veggie burritos, etc.)

we like to make egg roll stuffing using most everything in the share (something similar to the recipe posted here, though now we totally make it up as we go by adding whatever is on hand - chopped cabbage, pac choi, turnip greens, even radish greens with shredded turnips, carrots, ginger and other seasonings

Shain made a wonderful roasted potato and turnip green soup this week.

June 08, 2016

Hard to believe, but we are already transitioning some of our greenhouse space from early spring crops to warmer summer crops. The bolted arugula was taken out this week (our chickens were in heaven!) and now we need to start taking out the first plantings of salad mix. Shain will then plant these rows with our famous French fillet beans.

Above is a photo from greenhouse 6. This is where we grow our earliest spring crop of Chinese cabbage, pac choi, and Romaine head lettuce. These plants are a little smaller than what we'd normally like for harvesting, but we have to start taking them anyways to make room for transplanting the warm weather crops. For example, the cucumbers really need to be in the ground so they can start growing. This means our Chinese cabbage harvest this week was more about creating open spaces for the cucumbers than about harvesting the biggest plants. And so this process will continue in greenhouse 6, week after week, until we transition the entire 3,000 square feet from greens into tomatoes, peppers, basil, and cucumbers.

Just a reminder, if you won't be eating your turnips or radishes soon after picking up your share, remove the roots form the leafy tops. Otherwise, the greens will draw out the moisture from the radish or turnip in an attempt to stay fresh, leaving you with a less-than-crisp veggie. The same goes for beets, carrots, and any other root crop. And don't forget that the tops are also edible.

If you want to see more photos or updates on the farm, please click on the links in the right hand column of this page. One is to our facebook page, the other is Instagram. I try to post daily. You don't have to be a regular user of either website just to click and look at the pictures.

We will be organizing several open invitation farm work days here at the farm to help us get caught up on some projects. Please consider spending a few hours with us on occasion this summer. We really do need all the help we can get and the more we accomplish, the better the food! This week, I'll be working on some projects the mornings of Friday, June 10th and Saturday, June 11th.

June 01, 2016

I've heard from several members what a surprise it was to get 2 bags of salad mix in your share. Many thought it was a mistake, a mix up in how the shares got put together back at the farm. Nope. We planted a good crop of salad that was to be ready the middle of May and last us about a month. Instead, it was ALL ready at the end of May and so we are sharing the abundance. I don't think I've ever heard anyone complain about too much salad mix, it's one of the things we are "famous" for.

*Just as predicted, the arugula bolted as soon as the temperatures warmed up. We have learned over the years that planting a second crop is futile, flea beetles LOVE arugula on our farm and can eat an entire planting down to stubble. The little black buggers come out about this same too, so we spend our time and efforts on other, less susceptible, crops.

It was a pleasant surprise to see plenty of radishes and turnips this week. I really do enjoy pulling these beauties from the ground. So good to see color on the farm! Japanese turnips are a personal favorite for many CSA members. There's another bug (a type of root maggot) that loves the turnips, but we are usually able to get a steady harvest of turnips for several weeks. Remember to make use of the turnip greens! I've also seen several recipes recently that makes good use of the radish tops - wilted with other greens or in sauces.

Farmer Shain's comment: "Wow! We have so much planted! A lot of good food will be coming soon."

We are planting potatoes this Saturday and I'm extending an open invitation to the entire CSA to help with this big project. We'll start at 9:30 am and work until the job is complete. Please let me know if you can make it.